


Just Like An Orange

by NamelesslyNightlock



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Adorkable, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Attraction, Drunk Tony Stark, Facepalming, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Holding Hands, Humor, Idiots in Love, Kissing, M/M, Pining, Pining Loki (Marvel), Poor Loki (Marvel), Romantic Fluff, Speeches, Surprise Kissing, Tony Stark Is Not Helping, Weddings, Worried Loki (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23597206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock
Summary: Loki knows that Tony’s going to make a fool of himself trying to give his maid of honour speech while blind drunk. Loki also knows he’s going to have to stop him.It’s just a question ofhow.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 63
Kudos: 215





	Just Like An Orange

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AshAndSnow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshAndSnow/gifts).



> So Lisa and I watched a ~~really awful~~ amazing Netflix movie today, and she had an idea, and I. Needed to write it.  
>   
> I hope you enjoy this mess!

Tony was going to make a complete and utter fool of himself. Loki knew it, he could _sense_ it– he knew Tony well enough to be able to form a very clear picture of what was about to happen.

It was Thor and Jane’s wedding, and Tony- he was the maid of honour. He and Jane had been friends since college, he’d been the one to introduce Thor to Jane in the first place.

Tony had taken his duties very, very seriously from the first moment Jane had asked him, and he’d being doing a truly spectacular job. The bachelorette party, according to the few who could remember it, was an absolute hit, and Jane had barely been stressed at all during the planning stages as Tony helped everything run smoothly.

But… there was one part of being maid of honour that Tony appeared to be unsure about.

“Tony,” Loki had tried to soothe right before the main event. “You have given more important speeches than this, you have spoken to businessmen and politicians and—“

“That’s hardly more important than a friend’s _wedding,_ Loki,” Tony had hissed. “My speech needs to be _perfect,_ okay?”

“You will be fine. I’ll do my speech, and then you’ll go right after me—“

“That only makes it _worse,”_ Tony groans. “I mean, _look_ at you.” Tony gestured at Loki in an odd non-committal kind of way that had Loki frowning in confusion, but Tony just kept on going. “You give the _best_ speeches, I mean we didn’t call you silvertongue in college for nothing. After you, I’ll just look like a, like a bumbling baboon in a monkey suit.”

“The monkey suit does look good on you, however,” Loki commented, not quite able to help himself. But when Tony’s only response was a groan, Loki gave it one last try. “Look. You are Jane’s maid of honour. Are you going to leave her disappointed, or are you going to man up, get on that stage, and give the bloody speech?”

Tony held Loki’s gaze for a moment, his eyes looking a little wider than normal.

Then—

“ _Right,”_ he said, straightening his jacket and then grabbing a flute of champagne from a passing waitress. “Let’s get this fucking done.”

Loki grinned, and reached out– and had to change direction to pat Tony on the shoulder right at the last second, rather than touching him somewhere… else. He cleared his throat. “That’s the spirit!”

Tony matched Loki’s grin, slammed the already empty flute on the table—

And as he walked away from the corner he and Loki had been talking in and back toward the high table he grabbed two more glasses of alcohol, and Loki started to get that low feeling of worry deep in his gut.

Yes.

Tony was going to make a complete and utter fool of himself. There was no other outcome.

And maybe, the kinder thing to do would have been to stop him. Maybe Loki should have taken Tony by the sleeve, gently coaxed him out for a moment, splashed his face with water, sobered him up—

Told Jane he was ill and had to go home—

But, no. Loki _knew_ that Tony likely wouldn’t thank him for any of those things, and Loki… was always hesitant to do something that Tony wouldn’t like. He considered it something of an unfortunate curse.

So he’d just watched with a wince as Tony consumed glass after glass. He’d given his own best man speech with a curl of concern, his eyes regrettably flickering to his friend instead of staying on his brother as he spoke about how important love was.

Then, his turn was over—

And Tony was standing up, heading toward the microphone. And look, usually, Tony can drink anyone under the table, can hold his alcohol like a champ. _Usually,_ Tony can give a speech on quantum nuclear astrophysics while blind drunk without anyone being the wiser.

But, this was not usually.

Tony was not used to drinking champagne.

And due to his nerves, Tony had not eaten a single thing throughout the whole night.

There was a slight sheen of sweat on Tony’s brow, and he wobbled a bit as he climbed the steps to the microphone. But his smile was wide and bright, and there was a moment where Loki _hoped—_

Well, no.

He knew this was going to be a lost cause.

“Love… is like… an orange,” Tony started—

And Loki buried his face into his hands. There it goes.

“I’m not saying that it’s round, but I’m saying… it comes in all different forms, you know?” Tony said, his voice a little slurred but the words he was saying coming out perfectly clear. “Sometimes, it’s a _fruit._ And sometimes, people turn it into juice. Or put it in a cake! But it’s still, an orange. It just, comes in all different forms, and people do all different kinds of things with it.”

Tony grinned out at the wedding reception then, spreading his hands. Loki peeked at him between his own hands as Tony frowned, then pulled his arms back in, and tapped on his chin with his fingertips.

“Where was I… where was I going…”

He remained quiet for a moment, his eyes drifting closed, and he swayed slightly forward—

Loki darted back closer to the stage, thinking Tony was going to fall—

But then his eyes snapped open—

“Oh yes! _Love!”_ Tony’s grin was back. “It’s like an orange! I love love, and I love oranges, don’t you Lokes?”

Loki almost jumped at being addressed– he was standing back at the side of the stage now, and Tony was staring at him brightly. Loki offered him a smile, but nodded back toward the table where a strained Thor and a red-faced Jane were sitting—

“Oh, right, yes. So, my friend Jane– everyone here knows Jane, right? She’s awesome. I have so many funny stories about Jane. Did you know that one time she set a library book on fire because it didn’t properly reference its sources so she couldn’t use it in her thesis? It’s quite a funny story—”

Loki coughed.

“—but not as funny as how she and Thor ended up together!”

Oh, god. Okay. Loki debated whether he should put a stop to this, now—

“I mean, by all accounts… _all_ accounts, they really… shouldn’t… I mean really! A nerd, and a jock. A blonde, and a brunette! It’s like something out of a bad Netflix romcom. But they beat fate, they beat the odds, and here we are. Enjoying the champagne and the _truly_ terrible cake, I mean, really.”

Right.

Enough was enough.

Jane looked like she was ready to explode, Thor was nearly purple, the rest of the wedding guests were either pale or very clearly trying not to laugh and Tony was—

_Still going—_

“—honestly, truly awful, dry and flaky and nothing like the one we tasted. Jane, did we really pay so much money for _that?_ You should get a refund. We should have gone with an orange cake—”

“Tony,” Loki said sharply, striding up beside him and placing a hand on Tony’s arm. “Tony, we’re going to go out for a walk now.”

“No,” Tony complained, “I have to keep talking, I haven’t even finished my orange metaphor—”

“I think you’ve said quite enough already,” Loki tried—

But Tony wasn’t having it.

“Lokiiii it’s Jane’s wedding, I have to keep going, I– I need to finish, the _orange—”_

Afterwards, if asked, Loki wouldn’t be able to explain exactly what it was that made him do it. He couldn’t have put it into words.

But at the time, the only thing _to_ do was to lean forward and crush his lips to Tony’s, kissing him with all the passion he had been holding on to for _years._

Tony groaned against him, and there was a clatter as the microphone fell to the ground and Tony buried his hand into Loki’s hair. Tony’s lips moved messily and they tasted like champagne, but Loki kissed him hungrily– using the opportunity to just _take,_ to distract, to– he didn’t really know, to be honest. The only thing that mattered in that moment was _Tony,_ everything else flying out of the window. And as their lips slid together, as they pressed close against each other, Loki barely remembered his reason for kissing Tony in the first place.

It was what he’d wanted for so very long, and when they broke apart, there was a single, perfect moment where the world felt like it was _right—_

And that moment?

It didn’t _end._

“Oh.” Tony looked a little dazed, staring at Loki’s lips like he couldn’t quite process what had happened. But then his gaze flickered back up to Loki’s, and his eyes widened. “ _Oh.”_

“Outside?” Loki asked, his voice rather firm– but for something of a different reason than before.

Tony nodded, rather enthusiastically. “Yes. Outside. Let’s go.”

Loki took Tony’s hand at first, except Tony almost fell over when they took the first step. So Loki wrapped an arm around Tony’s waist instead, and gestured for Tony to wrap one around his shoulders.

Tony leaned on Loki heavily, but Loki found that he didn’t really mind, and then they walked with some difficulty toward the door.

As they moved past the high table, Thor had already swapped his mortified hue for a _massive_ grin, and he looked like he was about _this close_ to giving Loki a rather embarrassing thumbs up—

But Jane’s smile was softer, and as Loki dragged Tony past her, she mouthed, _‘Thank you.’_

Loki gave her a nod, and continued on his slow, ambling way.

They didn’t get far, just outside the door—

But they didn’t need to go any further. Loki helped Tony lean against the low concrete wall that lined the garden bed, maybe allowing his hands to linger a little longer on Tony’s forearms than they needed to.

Tony, despite the state he was in, seemed to notice. He followed Loki’s hands with his bleary gaze, and then he turned his hand to grip Loki’s – fumbling a little as he did so – and then he smiled.

“We’ll talk about this when I’m more not drunk, yeah?” Tony asked– and Loki’s lips curved with a fond smile of his own.

“Yes,” he agreed. And then he couldn’t help the asking– “When… will that be?”

“Tomorrow morning?” Tony replied without a beat. “You drive me home, I’ll make you breakfast. I have a spare room.”

Loki’s smile grew wider. “And just leave the wedding?” he teased.

“I don’t think Thor and Jane will be expecting to see either of us any time soon, do you?” 

Tony reached for Loki then, and Loki stepped closer, thinking Tony was asking for help standing back up. But Tony yanked Loki down instead, and landed a sloppy but still rather sweet kiss upon Loki’s lips.

Loki chuckled as the kiss broke– though Tony’s eyes stayed closed, and he was wearing a soft smile once again.

“Yeah,” Tony sighed. “Just like an orange.”

Loki blinked. “You said that you hadn’t finished the metaphor,” he said, unable to help the touch of curiosity. “What was the rest?”

Tony’s smile deepened. “Well… love, you know? Sometimes it’s sweet at first, but goes bitter. Sometimes, it’s the other way around. But sometimes, when you get the _best_ kind orange- it’s not too sweet, not too bitter, just this perfect kind of mix. And the more pieces of it you eat, the more perfect it tastes, until you feel like you could just keep on eating that one single orange forever.”

“That’s… almost beautiful,” Loki said, surprised. It was not quite the way Loki would have put it, since oranges _did_ rot rather quickly, but. Still. It held a certain kind of charm.

A certain _Tony_ charm, Loki supposed.

“Well don’t sound so shocked, silvertongue,” Tony said. “Now, are we getting out of here, or do I need to go back in there and talk some more to convince you—”

“I’ll get my car,” Loki laughed.

But Tony held on to Loki a little too long, as if he had forgotten he needed to let go. So instead, hand in hand – and not quite in a straight line – they both just walked the distance together.

And despite this unconventional beginning, Loki hoped that they would remain so for rather a long time.

(Certainly longer than an orange tends to last, at any rate.)


End file.
